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It’s important to know how your food is produced, why it’s produced that way and how the world can produce enough to feed itself in the coming years. We invite you to take a look at the collaborations we are making in agriculture, and to learn more about Monsanto.

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Last month, Monsanto was recognized at National FFA Convention as one of the five platinum sponsors of the National FFA Foundation in Louisville, Ky. Check out our infographic highlighting a few of the focus areas Monsanto supports within the FFA sponsorship.

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Our America’s Farmers campaign features real farm families doing what they do every day – growing not only our food, but also our economy and our quality of life here in America. We're all connected to agriculture and it’s time we, as a nation, learn more about the industry that provides for us every day.

Microbials

Sustainable Solutions for Agriculture

As part of its commitment to bring a broad range of solutions to help nourish our growing world, Monsanto has expanded its research and development (R&D) efforts to include an Agricultural Biologicals platform. Agricultural biologicals protect crops from pests, weeds and diseases and keep crops healthy. Farmers can rely on agricultural biologicals in addition to breeding, biotechnology and agronomic practices to grow healthy and nutritious food. Monsanto’s Agricultural Biologicals platform focuses on two core technologies: microbials and BioDirect™.

Microbials

Microbes are microorganisms so tiny that millions can fit into the eye of a needle. They occur naturally in the environment and are found almost everywhere. Countless microorganisms live in the soil and in close relation to plants, making up the plants’ microbiome. Many of these microbes have distinctive properties that can help control fungi, bacteria, nematodes, insects and weeds. They can also stimulate plant growth and yield by improving access to nutrients. Microbial products are made from microbes that can work alone or complement traditional methods of plant production and protection. They can offer real benefits to growers, like improving crop nutrient uptake, promoting growth and yield, and providing insect control and disease protection.

Monsanto is collaborating with other industry leaders to explore microbial technologies. As a result, Monsanto acquired the assets of the agricultural company Agradis Inc. to support its discovery capabilities in the microbial space and established a long-term strategic alliance with Novozymes to create The BioAg Alliance.

The BioAg Alliance

The BioAg Alliance brings together Novozymes’ and Monsanto’s capabilities within microbial discovery, development and production. The BioAg Alliance is dedicated to fundamentally enhancing the R&D of naturally derived microbial technology to significantly increase productivity of the world’s crops for the benefit of agriculture, consumers, the environment and society at large. The co-funded R&D platform is expected to catalyze the development of new microbial solutions to transform agriculture. Already in 2014, The BioAg Alliance tested microbial strains on a scale never attempted before, testing hundreds of microbial strains in 170,000 field plots across 70 U.S. locations. In 2015, The BioAg Alliance is working to more than double the number of field plots.

In addition to the discovery and development of new products, The BioAg Alliance is providing Novozymes’ current products to farmers worldwide through Monsanto’s global sales organization, known as Monsanto BioAg.